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Affinities of ‘hyopsodontids’ to elephant shrews and a Holarctic origin of Afrotheria

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  • Shawn P. Zack

    (The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)

  • Tonya A. Penkrot

    (The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)

  • Jonathan I. Bloch

    (University of Florida)

  • Kenneth D. Rose

    (The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)

Abstract

Afrotheres comes out of Africa In 1998 molecular evolutionists came up with the startling suggestion that a number of superficially divergent groups of mammals were closely related. Creatures as diverse as elephants, hyraxes, elephant shrews and aardvarks were dubbed ‘Afrotheres’, and said to signify an endemic radiation of mammals in Africa long ago when it was an island, rather like Australia (and its endemic marsupials) today. Afrotheria has received little or no support from palaeontologists, and it receives short shrift again this week. Zack et al. looked at hitherto enigmatic fossil mammals called hyopsodontids from North America, aligning them with elephant shrews. This suggests that if Afrotheria did exist, its origins needn't have been African.

Suggested Citation

  • Shawn P. Zack & Tonya A. Penkrot & Jonathan I. Bloch & Kenneth D. Rose, 2005. "Affinities of ‘hyopsodontids’ to elephant shrews and a Holarctic origin of Afrotheria," Nature, Nature, vol. 434(7032), pages 497-501, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:434:y:2005:i:7032:d:10.1038_nature03351
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03351
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